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[Reprint from Western Reserve University Bui.i.etin j 

Vox.. XI, No. 3.] I 

l 



Edward Gaylord Bourne 



By Francis H. Herrick, Ph. D. 

Professor of Biology. 



tl75 



Exchang'e 

West. Res. Hiat. Soc. 

1915 



EDWARD GAYLORD BOURNE.* 

By Francis H. Herrick, Ph. D., 
Professor of Biology. 

This is in some respects the most interesting season of 
the year because in our latitude it is the time of vigorous 
growth. We speak of the decay of Hfe in the fall and of 
its renewal in the springtime. There is really no renewal 
and no decay, no break in the chain of life, no snapping of 
a single necessary link, — only a repression of the vital 
forces followed by a quicker beating of the pulse. That 
old simile of physical life from physical death, — the spon- 
taneous generation of living matter from dead,— which 
held sway for at least two thousand years, and is still ap- 
pealed to by moralists, was radically wrong. The present 
order of nature is life from precedent life, first the living 
seed, then the leaf, then the ear,, and then the full corn in 
the ear. The individual dies it is true, but a vital part of 
it, the seed, may live on, so that the chain of the physical 
life even may be continued unbroken from year to year and 
from age to age. 

This is also the season of youth, and for you all before 
whom there lies, I trust, a stretch of fifty years of produc- 
tive life, it is well to think of this wonderful gift, this priv- 
ilege to live and to form a part of an endless chain of life ; 
it is well for us all to reflect anew upon our inheritance, our 
opportunities, and our inspirations. 

Therefore in paying this tribute to the first regular teacher 
of history in this University, I shall speak of the inspira- 
tion of his life, for I have seldom seen a man more truly 
. alert and alive than he. Others are better able to speak of 

•Address spoken in substance to the students of Adelbert College, March 
16, 1908. 



2 THE BULI^KTIN OF 

his scholarship and place as a historian, and their estimates 
will surely be made. But I wish the men of this year and 
time to know something of the man who for seven years 
went in and out of these halls, who often stood where V 
now stand, who was an inspiring teacher of hundreds of 
graduates from this College between the years of 1888 to 
1895, and who at the time of his death, just three weeks 
ago to-day, had server as professor of history at Yale 
University for thirteen years, and had not completed the 
forty-seventh year in his life. I refer to Edward Gaylord 
Bourne. 

Professor Bourne was born at Strykersville, N. Y., June 
24, i860, and graduated from Yale University in 1883, 
where he received the degree of Ph. D. in 1892. He served 
as instructor in history and lecturer on political science 
at Yale from 1886 to 1888, as instructor in history from 
1888 to 1890, and as professor of history from, 1890 to 1895 
in Western Reserve University. On July 17, 1895, he was 
married to Miss Annie Nettleton at Stockbridge, Massa- 
chusetts. He was recalled to Yale as professor of (Ameri- 
can) history in 1895, and died at New Haven after an ill- 
ness of nearly two years, February 24, 1908. His wife and 
five children survive him. I know that he is dead, but I 
also know that his spirit still lives and works in the hearts 
of all who really knew him. 

Professor Bourne was interested in all that pertains or 
that ever pertained to men, nations and things. He seemed 
to go about with living tentacles stretching in every direc- 
tion, seizing, testing, weighing, questioning all things. His 
curiosity was without a limit, and not of the idle sort. He 
was ready to exchange opinions and carry on an argument 
with anybody, at any time or place. 

He had an insatiable passion for books and libraries, not 
because of the pleasure they minister to the collector, but 
because they are human documents which reflect both the 



WESTKR]^ RESERVE UNIVERSITY 3 

wisdom and the follies of mankind. Upon entering the 
house or the room of a friend he would steer straight for 
the book-shelves, as if drawn by instinct, and never seemed 
to tire of handling and reexamining book after book. It 
was appropriate that he should have been chosen to speak 
at the laying of the corner stone of Hatch Library. 

In walking or riding along the streets nothing seemed 
to escape him. It apparently grieved him to miss seeing 
or hearing anything that was new. He once dismounted 
his wheel, and picked up an Indian stone axe, which had 
doubtless fallen from a load of earth, on the pavement of 
Euclid Avenue between the College and Fairmount Street. 
His mind was a ready reference-file on all kinds of sub- 
jects down to the current events of the day, and you could 
consult it with better confidence than the newspaper, be- 
cause it mirrored both past and present alike. 

Edward Bourne characterized in his own person Les- 
sing's definition of science: 'The everlasting struggle of 
the human mind after truth." He had what we call a 
"scientific head," that is he saw problems to be solved every- 
where, and he weighed causes and effects in a judicial spirit. 
His writings never suggest the advocate. With his passion 
for truth, his omnivorous reading and an unusually reten- 
tive memory, he combined evident fairness with common 
sense in such a degree that he became a critic of widely 
acknowledged skill and power. He would spare no labor 
an(1. no pains to find the truth of a debated question, and 
he early became a master of the modern methods of his- 
torical inquiry. Few were more skillful in the ready hand- 
ling of reference and source-books of every description, and 
he acquired a reading command over at least eight lan- 
guages. With ideals of scholarship so high, combined with 
rare and indefatigable powers of search, it will be no 
wonder if future workers on the veins which he opened 



4 THE BULLETIN OF 

find few grains of golden ore to reward their labor. Yet, 
when I knew him, Mr. Bourne never impressed you as a 
plodder, but as one with leisure at command. He was sel- 
dom known to be in a hurry to pass you on the street or 
to leave your rooms or office. The secret of his accomplish- 
ment was undoubtedly this : when necessary he could work 
long and hard at a stretch, but his resources were always at 
command, and he worked easily and effectively. It should 
be added that his habits of life and work were doubtless 
changed in some respects after his final settlement at New 
Haven. 

Naturally such a man was not inclined to take opinions at 
second hand, as most men seem to do. He must verify 
everything himself. The following illustration of this habit 
is instructive. About 1894, or not far from that time, Presi- 
dent Penrose of Whitman College, Oregon, delivered to 
the students in this chapel what might be described as a 
thrilling address, like that which he had doubtless spoken 
in many parts of the country, on Marcus Whitman and 
his marvellous ride on horseback and alone across the Rocky 
Mountains to the east, in the winter of 1842-43 to save the 
great Northwest, or what is now Oregon, Washington, and 
a part of Idaho, to the United States, then, or rather at a 
later time, said to be in imminent danger of falling into 
the clutches of the British lion by annexation to Canada. 
The speaker was making this stirring appeal to spread the 
story of Whitman, to arouse enthusiasm, and to secure 
funds for his College. Professor Bourne was present. I 
well remember the feeling of surprise which came over me 
in the thought of my total ignorance of a great nationals 
character, and of an event of such world-wide importance. 
Probably few of us, excepting Mr. Bourne, had ever heard 
of this hero's name, and much less his history, and I fear 
that some of us straightway forgot it ; but not so with our 



WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 5 

critical friend, whose particular business was to know 
American history in all its growth and antecedants. I 
think he resolved then and there to sift that Whitman 
story to the bottom, but whether this was the case or not, 
sift it he did with startling results. His conclusion of the 
whole matter appeared in its final form in 'Essays of His- 
torical Criticism,' published some seven years later (1901), 
where it forms the leading article of over one hundred 
pages, in the series of publications commcwiorating the Bi- 
centennial of Yale University. 

We sometimes lament that the public, old and young, 
should seemingly prefer to read its natural history out of 
the books of the so-called ''nature fakirs," but according 
to the arraignment of Professor Bourne, which seems to 
me unanswerable, the myth of Marcus Whitman's ride is 
without a parallel in both the annals of civil history and 
in the tales of animal life, for the vagaries of the nature 
romancer have not yet been adopted by the grave histor- 
ians of animal lore or embodied in standard text-books. 

The facts of the Whitman story were found to be as 
follows : In the fall of 1842, a worthy pioneer missionary, 
of Oregon, who later fell a martyr to the cause of Christian- 
ity, started on a journey east, concerned with the business 
of his mission, and without any political reasons whatever. 
"Fifty-two years later," says Professor Bourne, "in the 
most careful appraisal of human acchievement in America 
that has ever been made, the voting for the Hall of Fame 
at New York University, Marcus Whitman received nine- 
teen votes out of a possible ninety-eight to be ranked as 
one of the fifty greatest Americans . . History will be 
sought in vain for a more extraordinary growth of fame 
after death." The astounding fact thus revealed by Pro- 
fessor Bourne is that in an age abounding in documents a 
purely fictitious narrative can grow up, become accepted 



6 THE BULLETIN OF 

by competent historians, and completely displace the truth 
in a comparatively few years, and towards the very close 
of the nineteenth century. One ultra-enthusiast has even 
compared Marcus Whitman with Abraham Lincoln, and 
without any disparagement to the former. As an illustra- 
tion of exact scholarship and of the scientific methods of 
modern historical criticism, this essay may be read with 
profit by every student of history. 

Mr. Bourne's most elaborate work is without doubt his 
'History of Spain in America,' which appeared in 1904, and 
which has already been translated into Spanish under the 
title of 'Espana en America, 1450-1580' (Habana, 1906). 
This was preceded by The History of the Surplus Rev- 
enue of 1837' i^ 1885, the 'Essays in Historical Criticism' 
in 1891, already referred to, and regarded by some as the 
best of his published writings, because it brings into sharp 
focus the wide range of his interests and his rare critical 
skill. There appeared finally The Historical Introduction 
to The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803,' a work issued sep- 
arately in 1907 under the title of 'Discovery, Conquest, and 
Early History of the Philippine Islands, with Maps and 
Rates.' 

To these books, which are peculiarly his own, should be 
added eight distinct works in which Mr. Bourne had a 
part either as editor or translator. Chief among them are : 
'Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Con- 
quest of Florida' (1904), 'The Voyages and Explorations 
of Samuel de Champlain' (1604-1616), translated by Mrs. 
Bourne, 'The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503.' 
The list of addresses and critical articles, some of which he 
gathered in his "Essays" embrace more than twenty titles, 
and could be greatly extended by the addition of his many 
notes and minor papers.* 

*A biblio|Traphy of Professor Rourne has been published in the Yale Alumni 
Weekly (Reprint No. 2 from the issue for March 2o, 1908), in which will be found 
several notable tributes to the author as teacher, scholar, and friend of students. 



wkstkrn reserve university 7 

Of the appearance of the man himself, a word only will 
be said. Everyone would agree that he possessed a decid- 
edly intellectual face. When I first knew him his hair was 
as dark as a Spaniard's. Save for his dress he might almost 
have stepped out of one of Valasquez' canvasses. His 
clear gray eyes ceemed to penetrate beyond immediate ob- 
jects to those wider horizons of all natural things by which 
the present and past are related as cause and effect. No 
detail, however, was lost. Physically he was lame, but 
there was no limp in mind or spirit, and after a brief ac- 
quaintance this circumstance was entirely forgotten. Any 
physical defect is apt to make its possessor reticent, timid, 
or morbid, as if a permanent apology to nature were de- 
manded. Not so with Edward Bourne. On the physical 
side also his eye bore a challenge. He was strong and en- 
during. On the bicycle he descended Mount Washington 
by the carriage road, and the more formidable Pike's Peak 
from among the clouds. 

He was an ardent traveller, and always ready for new 
enterprises. The glamor of the past did not deceive him ; 
he interpreted the past through the present. Any street or 
suburb of Cleveland was investigated in the same spirit in 
which he would explore the remote corners of Paris or 
Rome. His originality of thought and purpose made him 
a leader whether in a bicycle ride or in the solution of in- 
tricate historical problems. With his rare mind and good 
humor, he was a delightful companion. There was never a 
dull hour in his comradeship. Think of how few this can 
truly be said ! His was one of those rare spirits which fill 
up every interstice of the day with something quaint, hu- 
morous, suggestive and interesting. 

Is not a character so broad and fair, so devoted to the 
truth, so truly religious in the fundamental conceptions 
which history and philosophy lay beneath the longings of 



§ THE BULLETIN OI^ 

the human heart, worthy of our study and of our imitation ? 
Never in the sense of a servile imitation, however, for ■ 
above all things let us be ourselves ! We must stand on our 
feet, and work out our own salvation, but let us never cease 
to cherish the inspiration of noble lives. 

I know that Edward Bourne is dead, but his spirit is 
worthy to live. Life seemed good to him. Few loved it 
better. His motto might have been— "One world at a 
time !" We may be sure that he drank of the "loving cup" 
gratefully to the end. 

Professor Bourne matured early in life; his formative 
period was well in the background. He lived wisely and 
achieved much, but many honors awaited him and would 
have come to him naturally had his life been prolonged. 

In summing up this tribute to the life of Edward Gaylord 
Bourne we might paraphrase the eloquent words with which 
he closes his essay on Prince Henry the Navigator : "Rightly 
is he numbered among those who by a studious and valiant 
life have freed themselves from the law .of death." 



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